Category: interpreters

‘Afghan interpreters who served with British troops fighting against the Taliban will be able to stay in the UK for free, the home secretary has said. More than 150 Afghans given five-year residency permits said they faced being sent back to Afghanistan when they expire, unless they paid £2,389 to apply for indefinite leave to remain. Sajid Javid said the fees have been waived.’

‘There are still relatively few findings of fundamental dishonesty being made by Courts. Despite the fact that this is obviously an important exception to the QOCS regime, the fundamental dishonesty threshold is proving a difficult hurdle for Defendants to meet. This article explores a recent finding of fundamental dishonesty and the lessons that can be learned by Claimants and Defendants in such cases.’

‘An Afghan interpreter who served alongside British troops on the front line has pleaded to be “allowed to live in safety, free of threats from the Taliban” after losing his High Court fight for better protection.’

‘Former local interpreters who risked their lives working for the British military in Afghanistan have lost their high court challenge to a government assistance scheme they say unlawfully discriminates against them.’

“The absence of legal representation for defendants to an action for debt who contended they could not speak English resulted in the High Court granting an application that the trial be adjourned for a second time. The judgment is a good example of the interaction of Article 6 ECHR (right to a fair trial) with the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR).”

“The contracting out of key services by the Ministry of Justice could end in a ‘multiple train crash’ because the department displays naivety and lacks the capacity to understand what it is doing, according to a parliamentary watchdog.”

“Where a company had an agreement with the Ministry of Justice to provide interpreters, including interpreters for criminal proceedings, it was essential that an interpreter was provided on every occasion when one was required. If there was successive non-attendance of an individual interpreter or successive failures in systems a court was entitled to view that as amounting to serious misconduct rendering the company liable for the costs thereby incurred by the Crown Prosecution Service and the defence.”

“The company contracted by the Ministry of Justice to provide court interpreters has won an appeal against a decision to award a third-party costs order after a sentencing hearing was adjourned due an interpreter’s non-appearance.”

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